CDB will give lawmaker a look at fairgrounds' maintenance data

Wednesday

The state’s Capital Development Board will meet with Rep. Raymond Poe to review material on the condition of buildings at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The state’s Capital Development Board will meet with Rep. Raymond Poe to review material on the condition of buildings at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The offer was made by the CDB’s acting executive director, Jim Riemer, shortly before the start of a news conference Tuesday to announce completion of two months and $2.7 million worth of electrical repairs on the fairgrounds.

However, Riemer reiterated that the material will not be made public, even if it is shared with Poe.

“Rep. Poe is a public official,” Riemer said. “We don’t want it to get out in the press yet because it isn’t complete.”

Riemer, who was named acting director earlier this month when Jan Grimes left the agency, said he doesn’t know what is contained in the material.

“I’m not really up to speed on the report yet,” he said. “In fact, I haven’t looked at it. We’ll sit down together and look at it with staff who can explain to us about the report, what’s in the report and what it means.”

Poe, a Springfield Republican, said he is trying to arrange a meeting for Monday when House staffers will be available to accompany him and help wade through the material.

“I guess they are going to show me an incomplete report,” Poe said. “He (Riemer) hasn’t looked at it either. He said we can both learn at the same time.”

Poe’s been trying to get maintenance records and other information about the condition of the fairgrounds since a series of electrical failures virtually shut it down in mid-February. The shutdown displaced 75 non-fair events, costing the local economy more than $750,000. The state lost $127,000 in rental fees and an undetermined amount of money from concessions.

Poe said he wants the information to determine if the electrical failures could have been avoided and if there are other maintenance problems that need immediate attention.

An assessment of some 9,000 state-owned properties is being conducted to determine their maintenance needs. CDB hired Vanderweil Facility Advisors of Boston for $3.62 million to conduct the assessment, which is “not going to be finished until August,” Riemer said.

The State Journal-Register filed a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Act to get the data compiled about buildings at the fairgrounds. CDB rejected the request, saying the information is “preliminary” and in a draft format that is not subject to public inspection.

Riemer said state agencies need a chance to review the data compiled.

Both he and Department of Agriculture Director Tom Jennings repeated Tuesday that no one could have predicted the failure of the underground high-voltage cables that led to the fairgrounds shutdown.

“With an underground cable, it’s hard to tell when it’s going to deteriorate,” Riemer said. “In your own home, you put a sewer line in and you don’t know when it’s going to go.”

There was no routine testing of the high-voltage cables to see what condition they were in. However, Jennings said there will be testing of the newly installed system on a schedule recommended by HDR Engineering, the firm hired to pinpoint the electrical problems.

Rick Schmudde, an electrical engineer with HDR, said a relatively new technology is available to test high-voltage lines without the risk of disabling them. An older technology could test the lines, but if the lines failed, they would have to be replaced immediately.

CDB said the final cost of installing 22 miles of new cable at the fairgrounds was $2.7 million, including $277,000 worth of change orders that represent about 15 percent of a $1.8 million contract issued to finish the second phase of the project. Even with the additional costs, the work by B&B Electric of Springfield was nearly $1 million lower than the next lowest bid.

“That’s high, but on an emergency and an underground project, it is not usual,” said Gary Kitchen, CDB’s project director for the work.

More than $120,000 of the additional expense came when contractors discovered concrete underground conduit had collapsed at two locations. The conduit had to be dug up and replaced.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

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